Ghost in Shell: Second Sight Chapter 1
by NSpire
Summary: The newest Cyber fad in Gotham City, Seeing what celebreties see. And batman fallows the trail of this crime staight to Japan and Section 9's front door.Takes place after first gig and before the events of batman beyonds first episode.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Second Sight

Once fear was enough. Only those days were in the past. Long before Batman hung his cape for the last time, vowing to never again fly as the bat. Those days were easier he thought to himself, his point seemingly being proven as his captive spat in his face.

Reaction replaced fear as his new greatest weapon unpredictability replacing cold calculated movements. The world had grown into such a hurry that instant gratification was even to slow. He pulled the man to within an inch of his face grimacing. The man lay suspended one hundred and twenty three floors above what had once been crime alley.

What had once been the street where his mother and father were murdered so long ago now resided down the center of a sky scrapper, even the theater was gone. "Last chance, I have no time for this game." Batman swung him out into the air and the man began to scream with laughter.

On his closest approach back to the building he grabbed the grapple line swiftly pulled a bat-a-rang from his recently modified utility belt and removed more than half the width of the rope.

"What the hell are you doing?" the man cried out in a sudden fear. Turning Batman smiled to himself. Finally fear.

"The line should hold for another few minutes, its been fun but I have places to be." He started to walk away. And with a snap the grapple gave way and batman turned leaping over the side of the building. He clicked his heals together activating his newest feature. Miniature rockets mounted to the souls of his shoes. Quickly he caught up with the plummeting man and scooped him back up to the roof top.

He pulled the lying man to him snarling and spitting with each word. "How are they doing it? How are they seeing into there eyes?" The man was flush white and trembling in a cold sweat. Fear.

"I don't know what there called but its some sort of new shit out of Japan." He cried out.

"Where are they coming from!"

"I told you bat Japan its all that I know, im just a hired hand im a nobody they wont tell me!"

"Then who is shipping them into my city!" batman emphasized this last point the loudest.

"Some new guy, he's some sort of tech genius."

"Who is he! And where will I find him?"

"His name is….." he was cut of by loud popping sound, blood squirted from his ears as his eyes turned a deep black. Batman let go of the limp man as smoke began to pour from his ears. Damn.

This case he had taken as a side project, a lul in between gang wars. It was now his greatest priority.

After the events of the cataclysm that destroyed Gotham so long ago Wayne Corp. was more than happy to help rebuild, forgive debts and give Gotham a second chance. This also allowed for Bruce Wayne's company to create edit and accidentally loose most of the blue prints to the buildings in the greater Gotham area.

Batman now traveled through one of the secret tunnels that would have been widely know about had some absent minded employee not shredded the only copies of the blue prints.

This particular tunnel leads from the old abandoned subway system to the Thomas Wayne memorial Hospital. This hospital also doubled as the coroners office and the autopsy had just been completed on the nameless man whose had died in batman's arms the day previous.

Over the last day Batman had fallowed several leads to the Powers tech world head quarters. All dead ends. According to hacked files they found something in his brain that they could not explain. He was on his way now to find exactly what it was.

Up a ladder into the ventilation system, he activated one of his newest toys. The cloaking device would hide him from any motion sensors or prying eyes.

Quietly he dropped the vent out of place and slid into the room. A HUD, Head up display scrolled information into his cowl letting him know which locker held which body and if they were empty. In True Gotham style each was full.

Cold storage locker b19 held the body in question. Doe, John was typed on the front. It opened with a dull click and slid out releasing a small plum of super cooled air.

He lay there peacefully, had someone not know the difference this man could wake up at any minute. His file lay on the outside of the locker and Batman opened it removing a small data chip that he loaded into a jack on his belt. The chip was Wayne Corp design, made to be compatible with most systems. Soon he feared Wayne's waning corporate share would bring an influx of Powers Techs, preparatory devices.

He quickly found what he was looking for on the disk and replaced them in there slot, he closed the locker and turned.

Across the room in locker bc95 held the mans personal belongings as well as the un known item found. This locker would be more difficult to access being that it was protected by a digital lock. Batman pressed a small switch connecting him with the network in his cave. He navigated the display with his eyes. The code is 5-5-9-2-6-a-e-i-u. the locker opened exposing the contents, three bags two small and one large filled the space. The first baggy marked A1 contained jewelry an empty wallet and cell phone. Packet b1 contained a small vile of thread chips, an illegal digital drug. Once in contact with the skin it would release a programmed amount of chemical similar to the neuro agent once employed by the scare crow.

The larger bag held clothing. The item was missing, even though it showed on the manifest for this locker. He turned scanning the room then headed to a microscope positioned in the center of the room. He lifted a set of hand written notes on John Doe, the item in question of unknown make and design had burnt itself out. Though they had found it at the base of the visual center of the brain. Batman removed a pair of tweezers from his belt and removed the item from under the microscope.

He began to look the small device over zooming in with his cowl sensors.

A crash came from the back of the room. "OH! OH! EL DIABLO!" A small round woman screamed and ran from the room. He looked down at his hand. Damn it. His cloak failed.

Batman dropped the device into a vile and pocketed it into his utility belt. He need some privacy in the presence of the Oracle.

He opened his eyes to the complete void of nothing. The avatar floated freely in the confined emptiness. He tested his limbs one after another each moved with out resistance. Though no resistance was met to move him.

A light appeared flashing the black briefly to a bright white. Three cloaked figures walked into the void. Suddenly he found himself righted. His weight pushing him down. The first figure removed his hood and spoke. Only no words came out as his world shook violently, blue bolts of lighting crawled all around him. The air became static each breath burned.

The second removed his hood and again as he spoke no words only streams of bright green ones and zeros. Finally the third fallowed suit his voice was a deep shrill screeched.

He dared not move. To do so would dishonor the magi, as they called forth the Oracle. Finally the sounds and lights stopped though the rumbling continued. He lowered to one knee and bowed his head.

The oracle he knew was an elite group of hackers who never truly realized what they had. But batman as the Avatar Mr. B had called on them more than once before. This graphic ceremony was there way of deciding who was worthy of there time.

"Rise" a voice boomed as the shacking stopped.

He rose to see a giant free floating eye.

"speak of questions, great and small answers of truth or the unworthy shall fall."

"I have found something." Batman raised his arm and a square image appeared with a diagram of the device with special notice to a serial number and a model.

The magi sprang into heated discussion. Batman could never figure out how many people actually made up the Oracle, some evidence pointed to only one, but this display always seemed to require more. Windows opened up around the eye with data flashing across names dates images, until finally they each showed the device, article spec sheet sales brochures.

"Interceptors in America, outlawed such technology is." The eye spoke. "Many questions I see you have," it began to explain the history of the Serano Corporation in Japan and the new technology that allowed police to tap into criminals and fight crime in a never before heard of way. Only they had been used criminally since day one the police implanting them in there own. That is until a group called section 9 was able to prove this.

"Where did you find such a thing Mr.B," the eye asked.

"Some one died today trying to give information on a new form of entertainment in Gotham, people are able to jack into the minds of celebrities and see what goes on. Many have learned of this but are afraid of what has been seen."

"Who." Batman puzzled over the question.

"I do not know oh great Oracle."

"the answers then must be found from start to finish."

He knew what this meant. Bruce Wayne was about to make an unscheduled inspection of his Japanese holdings.

"Fly true." The eye said before the room closed and he found himself alone on the roof of a Powers Tech building. Sometimes he thought maybe the Oracle knew even more than he thought.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Hidden Specter

"Ghosts do not inhabit the machine!" The man screamed as he pressed his hand gun further into his captives skin. "The machine is only the last embodiment of mans flawed quest to find an unloving god." He continued totally unaware that more than just his hostages listened to his rant.

'_Bato,_' Major Kusanagi spoke on section nines encrypted link. No more needed to be said as she hung invisibly in the corner of the ceiling.

Bato also cloaked scanned the assailant. _'Major this is no humanist his heat signature isn't even human.' _

_'What'_ the major replied.

_'According to my scan he is a mark twelve cyborg. It's a new design out of the Itchi corporation.' _

_'If he is a cyborg then what could he hope to gain from this'_

_'He could be taking the heat away from somewhere else'_

The major reacted to this, _'Togasa I need you to be alert this may only be a ploy.' _Togasa acknowledged this with a grunt. _'Ishikawa,'_ she began

_'Already on it major you will know what happens before anyone decides to do it.'_

Section nine as it is now had only been in operation for a few years, but they had the ability to read each other. The Major only had to say a name and it was already known what was needed. There success repeatedly counted on this fact. Aramaki there leader was a genius of design and his hand built team proved this time and time again. Even repeated attacks from there own government, the people funding them could not bring them down.

_'Major,' _Aramaki began on a special link just to the Major, _'This attack has reached the desk of the defense minister we need to end this quickly before the media is able to enter the situation. No fatalities lets have this one clean.'_ Ever since the last attempt to end section the ministers of the state have been pressing very hard at the body count, they wanted the job done with as little blood on there hands as possible. Beside elections where in a few months.

_'Batou, Boma, Saito,'_ the Major yelled over there link. Her crew sprang into action Batou was in charge of distraction while Boma and Saito rescued hostages and the Major was on take down.

"I shall cleanse the earth," the type twelve continued. A tap on his shoulder took him by surprise. In his shock he turned dropping his captive. A greater shock came next.

"Excuse me do you know where the bathroom is?" Batou asked smiling. He took his moment to attack and swung with all of his cybernetic might. The blow barely nudging the man. "Your not a type twelve are you?"

The bot sprang forth at him swinging and kicking Batou took only to defense ducking and parrying each blow. A low swing kick brought him to the ground and a quick roll allowed him to barely miss an impact directed straight for his head. His roll was to slow as the bots other hand raced down and scooped him up by his neck.

Batou looked around the room was completely clear now. The man noticed this to and began to growl. Batou, kicked him in the most sensitive place he could think of. A metallic thud was the only sound and the Cyborg looked at him with a funny expression. He smiled and shrugged then kicked again. No luck.

He was thrown across the room nearly destroying the far wall. Before he could stand and react he was on him again. The borgs fist swung down at him with amazing speed, stopping just hitting Batou. Smoke poured from his joints, it fell to the ground stuck in its attack position.

"Major, you know I love your right? But your timing is horrible."

"Sorry next time I will let it charge all the way." The major said decloaking and holding a small device with electrodes connected to the cyborg."

Batou crashed landed on a couch in the office of Director Aramaki. He crossed his legs and waited to for the debriefing to begin. Aramaki walked in and sat at his desk shortly fallowed by the Major. She stood in front of his desk and began to speak.

"The cyborg attack from yesterday had gone with out a hitch. Even the defense minister was forced to acknowledge this fact, though in normal form the local police received full credit." She moved to a monitor that descended out of the wall. "This footage was taken at the same from a security camera at the Serano Corporations Headquarters at the same time as the attack."

The video showed nothing other than a continuous loop of several guards falling knocked down by some unknown source.

Aramaki toned in, "At this moment we have no reason to believe that the attacks are connected. We are not taking any chances at this point."

Togusa looked up, "Was anything stolen?" the members of section nine all looked to him as the least cyberneticly altered of the crew he had proven very valuable to the team no only in field opp but as a mind to the group.

"Only a small amount of data." The major continued, "On the interceptors project. And one other thing of note was found left behind."

The major went to a drawer opened by Aramaki lifting out a large black object which she tossed onto a table between the couches. It landed with a hard clang.

The object, was the shape of a bat.

Batman stood outside of an unmarked warehouse. Last night he had broken into the Serano building in search of any information on the interceptors being shipped to the united states. Unfortunately the only information he was able to find was that the project had been cancelled and all the remaining stock was destroyed.

He had left a special Bat-a-rang with an experimental tracer, at the scene in hopes that this section nine that the oracle spoke of would come to investigate. This building seemed to fit the bill for a quasy secret organization that operated on which either side of the law it required.

That was step one. Step two, infiltrate Section Nines computer systems and see how much they knew. Night was falling soon. Bats only came out at night. Besides Bruce Wayne needed to make a stop at Wayne Tech Japan.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 burnout

Ishikawa sat pondering his display. Togusa who had been on his way to the scene of the attack the night before redirected to the Serano building when the silent alarm went. It was Togusa who brought back the black piece of metal that he now search for an origin.

At a rate of hundreds per minute Net sites and secret documents sped past. His brain calculated categorized and lined up data for his eye input. Several myths and legends came to his attention. Myths of a bat a legend from north America. Nothing concrete nothing worth sending to the major.

One odd image passed his screen and he stopped going back to it. A Team roster shot of the Justice League. Ishikawa laughed to himself, though this team of Meta humans and a few aliens, did police the world once the world seemed to turn on them. Now the team was gone. Odd he thought to himself how Japan never had the influx of Meta's and mutants that other parts of the world did. Though this random gene may have been lost as Japan was the first major nation to cyberize.

Super human was over, maybe never to be heard of again, But every generation needed its myths. He read the caption at the bottom.

_Justice league, North American June 15th 2000. This classic image of the founding members of the justice league was taken from there fortress known as the watch tower. Over there several years of operation the team stopped at least one alien invasion, and several large incursions by other meta humans. Pictured from right to left, Superman, Jon' Jon, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern._

He wondered to himself why this image had been cached as one he needed to see. Ishikawa was about to pass it when he noticed a fine print at the bottom of the page.

"_Not pictured Batman._"

_"MAJOR!"_

The decent into section nines main building had been simple so far. Like most buildings it was interconnected with subterranean tunnels to several other government buildings. And like most cocky organizations it was unguarded and only had a rudimentary security system. At best.

Batman had been able to hack specs for the interior of the building off of the public works website. Two strikes he thought to himself.

Slowly he crept down a series of corridors, his eyesight overlaid with an out line of the building. It would be very simple to get lost in this building and the several traps he's encountered so far were easy to, walk around, mostly they relied on laser sensors. With his cloak they were useless.

Batman's goal was the main computer room at the center of the building. This would not only be the easiest to access data from but would be the hardest to back track to. A unit that must normally have several attempts to hack would surely trace outside influences first, and he would be done and out before they figured out what was happening.

A slight hum filled the hall, and he was knocked from his feet.

"sorry!" a child's voice rang out as a blue four legged machine decloaked in front of him. Quickly he tested his suit. Still invisible. It turned apparently looking down the hall three sets of what must be optical balls whirred and spun. "Hello? Who, Who is out there? Major? Batou? Oh dear. A GHOST!"

Suddenly its tentacle like arms sprung forward and spun showing two large nasty looking weapons. As if this was not enough dozens of barely visible lasers spun through the hall. He could see several pointed directly pointed in his direction though they did not stay long.

Slowly it began to back off, then turned and spun down the hall. Batman sat for a few moments, taking in that his job might turn out a lot harder than he expected.

Major Kusanagi sat down in section nines debriefing room. Listening to Ishikawa recount what he had learned. Batou and Togusa where on there way the rest of the team had been unreachable, either on assignment or sleeping.

"And what's worse I rechecked the thing we found. Its some new alloy, I am worried it may be usable as some sort of homing beacon."

"You mean this Bat-thing wanted to come here?"

"Or somewhere else im not sure ive checked reports from this Gotham city and I have found out several interesting facts." He began the Majors full attention on him. As all the male members of the team had noticed Kusanagi was an amazingly beautiful woman and this was the first time hes ever had her all to his self. He pushed theses thoughts from his head. "Well to start I have reason to believe that interceptors have landed on American soil. Being that they were only ever a Japanese issue no other country bought in on them because of the ease of use and the obvious security issues."

"So you think its here to track the source of the interceptors?

"That's what it looks like so far. But I have more. The alloy after some hacking ive been able to learn more about it and its ability as a tracking device. The composite is currently in design by Wayne Corp industries, located in Gotham City." He paused to let this sink in, "Wayne Corp is owned by a Mr. Bruce Wayne a man with enough money to own Japan if he wanted to. And Mr. Wayne currently is in Japan."

"You think Batman works for Wayne?"

"Possibly I would say its atleast worth checking into."

Batman had reached the central computer with out any further disturbances. So far this had been to easy he thought to himself. His defenses were at full, almost causing him to attack the ventilation shaft when the air came on.

He took a deep breath to stabilize his nerves. From below the ears on his cowl he removed a small jack that unwound as he pulled on it. With a click it connected with the computer terminal. His HUD display exploded with images from the computer. Unprotected, he smiled.

With his eyes and the muscles in his face he controlled the progress of the screen and he augmented this with a small QWERTY style keyboard built into his left arm.

The directories flew by almost to fast for him to read even with his speed reading abilities. Though he caught small words and clips of words so far he was just burying himself in the system. He tried to find a search option. Nothing in the menus offered this to him. He called up a command prompt and typed : SEARCH. Nothing. He thought to himself and hit the F1 key in his keypad. Bingo.

He began to try possible search topics for interceptors, but he kept getting prompted for passwords. He went back the blank menu screen and tried to access anything other than menus. Nothing. Damn it the machine was protected.

With a sigh he cracked his knuckles and stretched. Batman sat to find a more comfortable position task.

He attempted to supersede the operating shell and break in through the command prompt. This gave him no purchase on the system though he did locate the login program.

He began to attack the login shell and after a few minutes was successful he was in the system. Batman started an internal count down in five minutes he would automatically log out of the system so that he could not be traced. F1 and a search for interceptors began to pull up hits. Pages of data began to flow at him as well as locks on different levels of information.

Batman cursed to himself at the gibberish he was reading especially after his full arsenal of decryption programs failed to produce anything from the data. It was a dummy shell. He had been had.

Shock hit him when he noticed his count down had frozen at 2 minutes. He watched it for a moment. Nothing. He also noticed that the room was starting to get very warm.

He stood up and the image in front of him stayed the same as when he was sitting. Something was wrong his cowl computer was frozen. He tried the automatic reset. The image stayed the same. Panic started to grow in his gut. Why was the room getting so hot? His forehead began to sweat as his internal cooling system failed.

His ears reached red hot and he was forced to remove his cowl. The cool air around his stung at the sweat dripping off of his face. He reached into his hood and removed the battery running his computer system. Then he disconnected from the computer terminal.

He had been reverse hacked. The hacker must be amazing, rarely had he ever been beaten back let alone had his system been damaged. Batman reinserted the battery into his cooling helmet and watched as the restart process began.

Then he saw the camera trained in right on his face.

The major opened her eyes disconnecting from the wired. _"Batou, Togusa, we have bats in our belfry."_


	4. Chapter 4

A security klaxon screeched as Batman took to the air duct system crawling hand over hand up the metal work towards the roof of the sky rise. If he could reach the roof then he could take to the air and disappear amongst the hectic Japanese nightlife. He knew soon he would have to leave the safety of the duct work, which his schematics showed were unprotected and had no sensory equipment. Section 9 could not track his movements though his progress would shortly be impeded.

The dark knight had to make a difficult decision and soon. Within two minutes he would run out of room, but his suit would not reset fully for another 4 minutes leaving him fully exposed to his pursuers. He rechecked his schematics and found little solace in what he found. The junction that ends the maneuverable area of the shaft delivers him to a large open area with no cover.

As he reached the end he flipped open his keypad on his wrist, he had most functionality save his cloak still was charging. Batman decided to buy himself some time. Before he reached the central computer he had planted a small explosive device. Not enough to damage anything but enough to hopefully draw the attention away from him.

At 3 minutes he set off the explosive and watched as several security guards filed through a door at the end of the open area and ran under his hiding place arguing about the explosion. Once out of site batman dropped down to the ground and ran towards the door. A small click in his ear sounded telling him his cloak was again charged; as the door swished open he disappeared from vision.

He progressed up several flights of stairs with little to no interruption until a door opened at the end of a hall he was running down. Batman took to the wall as a large Cybrog with an almost larger gun filed past. The sound of the preceding door opening and closing signaled that is was safe to move again.

"Hey bats," Batman turned seeing no one behind him. "Your not the only one with fun tricks" He turned just in time to catch an unseen blow to his mid section knocking the breath out of him as he crashed into a wall. Luckily his suits structural integrity held taking most of the blow.

"I might not be able to see you old man," an unseen voice called out, "but the tube in your heart screams out like a bats sonar."

The spinning in his head began to slighten, and he had to think fast. Batman dashed through the door at then end of the hall taking a turn into another. He could hear the sound of the cloaked mans foot falls. A quick lift into his utility belt and he pulled out several small orbs that on impact on the ground burst into giant clouds of smoke.

Batman took a battle ready pose waiting for the form of the cyborg to appear. The foot falls ended and the shape of a man appeared.

"Nice one, I am impressed." He walked back into cloud concealing himself from sight. Batman took this opportunity to head for the nearest stairwell, then to the roof.

The dark knight crashed through the door with a roll. His cloak still held as he sprang to his feet. Two clicks in his heels and his rocket boots flared to life. He felt his body lift then suddenly stopped. Something was grasping his ankle. Looking back he saw the widely grinning face of the cyborg he fought with before. Batman began to kick at the face of the man but was pulled and flung to the ground before he could complete his attack.

Rolling back up to his feet he pulled an extending bow staff and took to a defensive position. Batou cracked his cybernetic neck joints in a very Bruce lee style the took to a jitsu stance. Batman decided to take the offensive charging towards him. Just before the point of impact he stood straight up signaling he did not intend to fight anymore. Batman slid to a stop on the graveled roof.

He pointed over Batman's shoulders with a evil smile. "Your screwed now pointy ears."

Aggressively batman turned spinning his bow dropping to a defensive stance, and was taken to shock at the sight. A scantly clad female cyborg stood before him leaning on out to extenuate her womanly physic. He had to mentally work to not let the bow spin from his hands. He had seen many a beautiful woman before, more times than not under similar circumstances. Only there was something about her something very inhuman in her beauty as his Michelangelo has sculpted her with his bare hands.

As the shock wore off she took to a stunning aerial move that took her over the dark night. On landing she took to a stunning kick attack that batman was barley able to dodge. She paused long enough to allow him to counter attack he sent a flurry of blows that she dodged with out a site of difficulty. He pulled his bow staff and began to strike with it again she dodged each parry. As he sent his attack a pounding started in the back of his head.

Back and forth there attacks went each set was dodged by the other. Only batman tried to dismiss the growing pain his body was going through until his feet gave out under him during a fallow through punch. The world went hazy and he made a mad dash for the edge. Over the edge he jumped clicking his heals he took to the air.

_"Tachicoma fallow!" _The major ordered as she jumped over the edge throwing out her almost invisible grappling line.

_"Yes Major"_

"Major I have found him."

"I know." She responded decloacking on the roof top over looking a small back alley. Batman lay clutching his chest in a pile of trash.


End file.
